Decluttering Tips & Trips For A Stress-Free Holiday Season

At Barna Recycling, we understand decluttering your homes during the busiest time of the year can be overwhelming, so we have outlined some of our top decluttering tips to follow for a stress-free & mess-free holiday season!

From clearing out the massive mess in the shed, old clutter in the attic and sorting out all the unused clothing, old blankets, and bedding to old books, now is the perfect time to deep clean your homes inside and out before the holiday season!
 
Below, we have outlined our top three decluttering tips and key information to help you understand what to do with the different types of waste from your home clear out.  

 

Decluttering Tip 1: Use Your Local Civic Amenity Site  

Our first top decluttering tip is to take advantage of Barna Recycling’s purpose-built Civic Amenity Sites. These local sites will assist you greatly when clearing out your home. We have seven civic amenity sites across Connacht for your convenience, where you can dispose of a large variety of non-hazardous and recyclable household waste at a reduced cost. Click here to find out where your nearest recycling centres might be located.

Here are some of the benefits of using one of our civic amenity sites

• They are cost-effective and cheap to use. 
• Accept a wide range of items, including hazardous materials. 
• They are clean, local, and easily accessible. 
• Open on weekends to make them more accessible to all. 
• They are well laid out and marked for each waste material. 
• Cater for small and large deliveries in the exact location. 
• Provide WEEE and Glass Bottle services free of charge. 
• Cater for small and large deliveries in the exact location. 

 

Decluttering Tip 2: Check The Types of Items Accepted At The Civic Amenity Sites 

Our second decluttering tip is important for the correct disposal of waste. Below are examples of types of items accepted at our sites.
 
Old blankets/ Bedding & Mattresses: Some of our civic amenity sites will also accept any type of clothing, footwear, and textiles, including blankets, at selected civic amenity sites. However, an extra charge would apply for disposing of bedding and mattresses.
 
Books: Generally, books should be placed in the household recycling bin. However, if you have a large volume of old books, phone books, newspapers, and magazines, you can dispose of them at some of our local civic amenity sites.
 
Electrical items: You can bring unwanted electrical waste, more commonly known as WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), such as Computers, Monitors, Mobile Phones, Electronic Toys, Game consoles, Speakers, Headphones and electrical appliances to your local amenity site to dispose of it free of charge. Check out our blog for decluttering tips on disposing of WEEE items.

Old Swing sets and Garden Furniture: If you have an old garden swing or garden furniture still in working condition, you could consider selling it, passing it on to someone else or donating it to local charity shops. If they require disposal, you can bring them to your nearest local civic amenity site. Most wood, metal, and plastic furniture are widely accepted and recycled at civic amenity sites. If you have large volumes of garden waste or are undertaking bigger garden projects where you are completely redoing your lawn, landscaping, cutting or removing hedging, then hiring a skip would be the right option for you.
 

Decluttering Tip 3: Too Much Waste? Hire a Skip 

 You can choose to hire a skip, which makes throwing away rubbish much quicker and easier. At Barna Recycling, we have skips of all sizes for all purposes, so you can be sure we will have one to suit your needs and requirements– have a look at our helpful skip sizing guide here for more information. 

 

Declutter Your Home Stress-Free With Barna Recycling 

The items accepted will vary for each of our civic amenity sites. Please be sure to call in advance or check our website for the complete list of items accepted at your nearest centre. The charges for the items you bring to the respective civic amenity centre will be based on the type of vehicle you have, not the quantity or weight of the waste items themselves.
 
Our Barna Recycling team are always on hand at our civic amenity sites to greet you on arrival, assist you with drop-offs, and provide you with advice and information about recycling and waste disposal. Follow our top decluttering tips and have a stress-free and mess-free holiday season.

Barna Recycling’s Guide to Effectively Disposing Garden Waste

Our country finally basks in summer sunshine, with temperatures expected to rise even further over the coming days. We imagine for many of us this is the perfect time to get back into gardening, clear out our gardens and backyards to host that long-awaited barbeque and enjoy this unbelievable summer weather!

At Barna Recycling we understand there can be some confusion around what garden waste items are recyclable and how best to dispose of them.

Below we look at each item in detail, along with some excellent tips that you can follow to effectively manage your garden waste.

What is ‘Green’ garden waste?

Green Garden waste is decomposable and consists of flowers, leaves, grass, weeds, tree bark and pruned branches, clippings and twigs, home-grown fruit, or vegetables. – mywaste.ie

Your disposal options are:

• Home Composting – Composting at home is one of the best methods to dispose of garden waste. As compost is rich in nutrients and great for your garden, shrubs, or even indoor plants. It is an excellent way to get the final use of your organic garden waste. You can have a read of our helpful composting guide here.
• Grass recycling – When mowing the grass in your lawn, you can choose to leave the grass clippings on the ground, so it decomposes naturally. Once on the ground, the grass clippings become dry and decompose quicker, thereby returning valuable nutrients like nitrogen back into the soil.
• Civic amenity sites – If you have large volumes green garden waste, you could also bring them to our recycling centres at Ballinasloe, Carrowbrowne and Cartrontroy Athlone.
• Compost / Food Waste Bin – Alternatively, you could also dispose of your green garden waste by putting it in the compost bin.

Old Swing sets and Garden Furniture

If you have an old garden swing set or garden furniture that is still in working condition, you could consider selling them or passing them on to someone you know or donating them to local charity shops. However, if they are not in working condition and if they require disposal, you can bring them to your nearest local civic amenity site.

Garden Chemicals / Liquids

Items like weed killers, petrol/fuel for your lawnmower, pesticides and herbicides, fertilisers, and some plant foods will have to be properly stored and disposed of, as some of these items can be hazardous and can be very harmful to the environment

Here are some of our top tips on safely disposing of these items:

• While purchasing these items, consider whether the packaging can be recycled and see if environmentally friendly alternatives are available.
• Retain all original packaging and labelling, so you are aware of any expiry or use-by dates, which will assist in disposing of the item correctly.
• Be sure to get in-store advice on how much you need beforehand, so you are only buying as much as you need and not overstocking/overusing.
• ALWAYS remember liquids of any kind should NOT be included in your general waste bin.
• ALWAYS remember NOT to mix chemicals for disposal under any circumstances, no matter how small the quantity. This can lead to the emission of toxic gases, which can be highly lethal and could lead to hospitalisation.
• Alternatively, you can also check with your local civic amenity sites to see if they accept the chemical items as part of their hazardous waste services. Please be sure to check our website for the full list of items accepted at your nearest centre.
• If the civic amenity site cannot take the item, contact a specialist hazardous waste company who may collect the item from you directly.

If you have large volumes of garden waste or are undertaking bigger garden projects, then hiring a skip would be the best option for you.

You can order a skip by calling our skip team on 091-771619 or enquiring through our website www.barnarecycling.com/ and our team to advise you on sizes and prices available.

Managing Garden Waste

This month’s blog looks at how you can manage your larger garden waste such as garden furniture, storage containers, gardening tools, outdoor toys, and hazardous materials. As we are nearing the end of the summer months and school is due to recommence soon, we often find that Barna Recycling customers are looking to dispose of such garden items that are broken and no longer needed.

We had some fantastic summer sunshine in the earlier parts of the summer, which encouraged us to get outside and work on our gardens. Children also needed to be entertained during lockdown so new toys and garden gadgets were brought in to help keep them busy. Some of you may have had long serving garden tools and sheds that were due an upgrade and want to know for to recycle and or safely dispose of these large garden items.

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